Norbert Elias once wrote that "knowledge about sport is knowledge about society." Corry Cropper has deftly refracted French society, politics, and literature through the interpretive lens of sport in his book, Playing at Monarchy: Sport as Metaphor in nineteenth-century France. He discusses what Paume, the "real tennis," symbolized for the French Revolution, how chess helped mold our historical ideology, and why Napoleon may have survived longer had he played trictrac.—Original airdate: 2/5/2009